Michael Laudrup wants Chris Coleman to use common sense when Ashley Williams reports for Wales duty.

Wales captain Williams will sit out Swansea’s home Europa League tie with St Gallen of Switzerland on Thursday because of an ongoing ankle problem.

It will be the third successive game Williams has missed for the Welsh club following the nagging ligament injury and the centre-back is also rated as a major doubt for the Premier League clash at Southampton on Sunday.

But that will not stop Wales boss Chris Coleman including his skipper in the squad named for the important World Cup qualifiers against Macedonia and Belgium next week.

Wales are rock-bottom of Group A and the manager is under pressure to deliver results in a bid to win a new contract extension.

Yet Swansea boss Laudrup has fears the 29-year-old will not be managed properly by Coleman amid a potential club-versus-country row.

Laudrup said: “I can only try to ask for common sense. This is not about Swansea or the national team. This is about a player. Ashley wants to be here, there and he doesn’t want to disappoint anyone.

“He’s the captain of his country and the club so you can’t really ask the player in this case to say, 'I want to do this' or 'I don’t want to do this', because he doesn’t want to disappoint anybody.

“That’s why it has to be up to the rest of us – the national manager and me.

“I will never tell a player not to go and play for his country. But we have to try to find out what is best – not for us, but for him.

“What does it help if I say, ‘Don’t play on Thursday or Sunday' and then he plays one or two games for the national team?”

Laudrup cited the example of Lionel Messi in last season’s Champions League semi-final versus Bayern Munich.

The Barcelona superstar played in Munich despite carrying a hamstring injury and was anonymous as Bayern claimed a remarkable 4-0 first leg victory.

Laudrup is praying Coleman does not follow the same path of risking a player, no matter how important the stakes are.

He added: “Ashley is a very good player, but if he is at 80 per cent he is not Ashley Williams everybody knows. He has to be 100 per cent. If you are not 100 per cent, no-one is the same.

“The best example would be Barcelona v Bayern Munich in Munich last year. It was 4-0 and Messi played. He played at 70 percent so it was not Messi. He was on the pitch but it was not him. He was not there.

“Sometimes you want to select a player because he is important, well there is no more important player in the world than Lionel Messi, but even at 70-80 per cent he is not the same.”

Winger Pablo Hernandez and centre-half Garry Monk are also out with hamstring and knee complaints respectively.

Grounded: Swans will be without winger Pablo Hernandez too (Image: David Rogers)

Defender Angel Rangel is a doubt with an ankle knock, while Roland Lamah has a toe problem.

St Gallen manager Jeff Saibene believes Swansea are favourites to win Group A, but feels his side have the confidence to follow the lead of Swiss rivals Basel and cause an upset at the Liberty Stadium.

But Saibene thinks the manner of Swansea's win in Spain means they start as favourites for this fixture, and to come top of the pile.

He said: "For us this is a huge challenge facing an established Premier League team, who are technically very good and have players well known outside the UK.

"It was a surprise for them to win in Valencia. It was a very convincing victory and it just shows the strength of the Swansea team.

"Maybe Valencia were not in great form at the time, but the result shows the high level they are playing at. They are group favourites, just about."

St Gallen have gone 12 games unbeaten in all competitions, mainly thanks to the goalscoring exploits of striker Goran Karanovic, who has netted eight times in 13 appearances.

They also travel boosted by Basel's victory at Chelsea in the Champions League and Saibene expects his side to give a good account of themselves.

He said: "Basel have played well against English opposition before, they played very well against Tottenham in the Europa League last season. They are an example for us that we can achieve something here against English opponents.

"We don't want to come here and just hide, we are going to go out and give our all. We can take confidence, not just from our win over Kuban Krasnodar, but also from our two games against Spartak Moscow.

"When the draw was made we were not given much of a chance to get through, but we did, and that has given us confidence, and we arrive here unbeaten in 12 games."